Monday, April 9, 2012

H: How To

H: Like many authors, I spend time checking out what agents and publishers are looking for. Lots of them love to look at 'How To' books. If there's something you don't know how to do, there's probably a book out there to tell you.

Growing up on a farm, I didn't realize people called repairman for work around their homes. It seemed my father could do anything. He remodeled our entire sprawling farmhouse, rebuild the barn from the ground up and fixed nearly any piece of farming equipment that needed it. The only thing he wouldn't do by himself was electrical work, not because he didn't know how, but because he wanted an expert to be in charge of that. Like many farmers, he was very leery of fire. It was a bit of culture shock when I married my husband and found he didn't know how to anything except paint. We laugh about some of it now, but we still have to call repairmen for things I know my dad could have done. He learned it from his father, from doing and from neighbors who always pitched into help each other. If there were books describing how to replace one of the zillion cotter pins in our old hay baler, my dad didn't have it.

One thing I can say about my father though, if there had been a book, he wouldn't have hesitated to make use of it. Looking for and asking for help, knowing we need help, is not a sign of failure. No one knows everything. Some of us know so little, we don't even know what we don't know. I had fun writing that. There are stacks of books available describing every part of the writing business. There are digital oceans of information, lots of it free, offering advice on editing, promotion, and anything else you might need to know for your writing career. And if you can't find the exact nugget of information you need, simply pose the question on your blog, on facebook, on twitter, and you'll get more feedback than you probably need. And somewhere in all those words thrown back at you, is likely to be the answer to your question.

In the months leading up to this A to Z Challenge, lots of generous folks posted on the A to Z blog their thoughts on how best to succeed at this challenge. If you have any 'how to' questions on blogging, read those older posts.

Did you have a favorite 'how to' site or book? Do you try to do most things yourself or do you call for help?

It's true that people seemed to know how to fix things better back in the day. We do have google to help us learn new things.For querying, Elana Johnson has a lot of great advice on her blog. She even has a free e-book about writing query letters.

Funny, as come to think of it my Dad also fixed most things. He grew up in the Depression era and maybe that was part of his generation. He liked the challenge of fixing something himself and was very methodical about it. Great post. My husband does the same thing. I do, only if its a "verbal" fix - in my writing that is! LOL

If it involves my computer, I immediately call my husband!My father was handy like that. He was a carpenter by trade and build and remodeled so much of our house. He had quite a few how-to books and always did it himself.

Well said, Susan! My Dad was exactly the same way and thankfully my husband is, too, so we've minimized the repair bills. Of course we spent the saved money on our house full of children. :) That makes me happy though. Just like all those who share their wealth of writing knowledge so that the rest of us can succeed in our goals, too. :)